Скачать или смотреть Soul Flower Union with Donal Lunny - Mangetsu no Yube

A clip of Mangetsu no Yube performed live by Soul Flower Union with Donal Lunny, plus interview with Takashi Nakagawa. This is from a TV programme called Rainbow Cafe, originally broadcast in December 1999 with guest Paul Fisher introducing an artist from the Rough Guide to Japan CD.

Soul Flower Union and it's various offshoots, have been one of Japan's most consistent and intriguing performers. The group were originally formed in Osaka in 1993 out of two groups. Newest Model, close to a punk or mod band and fronted by Nakagawa, and Mescaline Drive, which featured female guitarist Hideko Itami, and was influenced by glam rock.

Soul Flower Union's music became a somewhat wacky blend of rock and psychedelic music, but from their first album 'Kamuy Ipirma' included extraneous elements, such as Ainu music (indegenous Japanese) that would help set them apart. Their development musically has been intrinsically linked to their own social consciences, such as a desire to highlight the plight of the Ainu, a rare virtue in Japan.

In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 the group took to the streets of Kobe to 'cheer up' the victims, playing around 50 or 60 times. Forced to go 'unplugged' with the absense of electricity, the group swapped their electric guitars for Okinawan sanshin, Korean changgo drum, clarinet, accordeon and the chindon drum, these instruments being incorporated later into Soul Flower Union. At this time, Nakagawa, also co-wrote with Hiroshi Yamaguchi of Heatwave, the song 'Mangetsu no Yube' for the victims of the earthquake and one of the truly exceptional Japanese songs of the 90s.

Forays into Irish music followed with collaborations, firstly with the Donal Lunny Band on Nakagawa's solo project ' Soul-cialist Escape' and on the album 'Winds Fairground' once again with Lunny, and also top Irish traditional group Altan.

The group have continued to release albums and singles, in their own Soul Flower style and have built up a sizeable and loyal following in Japan.
For Soul Flower CDs
http://www.farsidemusic.com/acatalog/...
To read interviews with Hideo Itami and Takashi Nakagawa
https://farsidemusic.wordpress.com/20...
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